


An Early Island Adventure

by blueskiessunshine (rainydayrambling)



Category: Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-03
Updated: 2013-10-03
Packaged: 2017-12-28 07:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/989609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainydayrambling/pseuds/blueskiessunshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter Pan explores Neverland at night, and meets Tinkerbell for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Early Island Adventure

Before there were Lost Boys, before there were pirates, even before there were Indians, there was just Peter, and the island. This was when the island got its name.

Peter had been there for many moons, playing with the fairies and chasing stars, until one morning (or afternoon, or sometime in the middle of the night - it didn’t matter, once he knew that time did not pass on the island) he realized that he hadn’t aged at all - and that he never would.

From that time, he began referring to the island in his head as Neverland, until, when there were others on the island with him, he told them it was called Neverland as though it had never lacked a name and had somehow whispered it to him when he arrived.

\---

No one loves Peter like the island loves Peter. He is equal parts cold and indifferent, warm and loving - just like Neverland itself. And Peter has so many adventures there that he forgets nearly all of them. Before he shared the island, Peter had a score of grand adventures worth recounting. Shall I tell you of the day he discovered the mermaids? Or of his time as captain of the beasts?

Ah! I have the perfect tale! I shall tell you of the circumstances surrounding the fateful day when Peter met Tinkerbell; no doubt you’ve heard of her.

—-

It was a severely still night. There was no wind rustling the leaves in the trees, no crack of twigs under the feet of stalking beasts, no sound of the surf on the shore. High above, the mountaintops looked like jagged crags against the starry sky.

Peter stepped with bare feet, feeling the overwhelming silence like a sigh, everywhere around him but intangible. Beneath his toes, he felt the island shift, just so, to help him keep from making a sound.

He walked with little direction. In the early days, he was still learning the island - its ways, its manners, all its little nooks and crannies. The light of the moon shone down through the trees to guide his feet, and he found that when he wished it were a little brighter, its strength grew to accommodate him.

As he passed the place where the mushrooms grew, he knew that he was heading toward the hollow, where the fairies lived. He had come to the island with the fairies from Kensington Gardens, and sometimes he visited them - but tonight, it felt less like he was going to see the fairies out of some desire of his own, and more like he was being led there, as though the island wanted him in the hollow.

The fairies were all asleep. Peter could tell, because the hollow was dark. All of the fairies were tucked away into their tiny homes, wrapped up warm in their beds. Why would the island lead him here, Peter wondered, when all the fairies were asleep?

As he was wondering this, he felt a breeze come up from behind him - the first breeze there had been all night. It brushed the nape of his neck, tripping past him into the trees toward the beach. Peter followed it, moving more quickly with the feeling of a destination before him. Yet when he reached the sandy shore, he saw only the almost-still sea before him, its waves only just touching land before drifting away again, and white sand side-to-side.

A wave brushed up just then, not much different from any of the other waves, only this one came from the east rather than the west, as though it were pointing in that direction. Peter turned to look, but still he saw nothing; another wave came, stronger this time. Peter squinted into the night - and there, sure enough, at the east end of the beach, he saw a tiny shimmer of light.

Unsure of what he would find, he approached with some caution (though not much - he was Peter Pan, after all, and what had he to fear?). In the end, though, it was merely a fairy, fluttering and flicking her wings against a bit of wire which she had caught herself in. Peter laughed at the sight of her. He laughed so hard and for so long that eventually the fairy was forced to take notice of him.

When she did, it seemed only to make matters worse. She shook one of her minuscule fingers at him as he doubled over, and she yelled and yelled in her voice like silver bells.

Finally, Peter’s laughter died down to sniggering and he knelt to help free the fairy from her wiry prison. Only this did not stop her shouting, and when his fingers came close enough, twisting the wire in his attempt to make a free space, she bit him! For the first time, he listened to what she was saying.

"A beast?" he said. "I’m not afraid of any beast. I’ll free you."

The fairy crossed her arms and stamped her foot, making a rude comment that Peter could only just catch.

"Fine," he said. "If you don’t want my help, I’ll leave you alone."

He stood and walked a couple of steps back down the beach, expecting the fairy to stop him and call him back. This she did not do. Instead, she returned to her previous engagement of flying about the little enclosure, pushing at the wire here and there but all in vain.

Peter turned around. ”I’m going to help you, stubborn fairy,” he said. ”I won’t leave you here.”

The fairy puffed herself up for a moment as though she was going to protest, but then she sunk down to the ground, crossed her legs, and leaned her head on her hand, shrugging one shoulder.

After that it was only a moment before Peter had the wire giving way, and the fairy stepped out into the open air. She shot Peter a quick nod (which he presumed to be a nod of thanks) and pointed back down the beach with a stern expression. Then, before he knew it, she was zooming away into the trees and toward the hollow.

Peter shook his head, mostly in surprise at his ill-treatment. Fairies had always loved him before. But, he merely shrugged and walked back down the beach, thinking that he would find a tree to sleep in soon. He hadn’t gotten far, though, when the still silence of the night was torn suddenly by a crash and thunder unlike any Peter had ever heard on the island before.

Startled, though perhaps not yet afraid, he looked up. A massive beast, so large it looked as though it could have been the mother of all those other beasts Peter had seen so far in his time on the island, burst forth from the trees and onto the beach. It was stocky, with thick limbs, and covered all over with a natural horned armor that looked as though it might have been rock, or bone. Its knife-like teeth glinted in the moonlight.

Still, Peter held his ground, looking from left to right and liking his chances. The beast was huge, Peter was small and fast - it would be a simple thing to outrun it.

But he underestimated the creature’s ability. In one deft leap, it sprung the distance of the beach and landed right in front of Peter, so close that he could feel its breath (cold and coppery, like the beast had been cut from the very mountains) on his face.

Peter had just enough time to realize that the animal’s mouth was the size of his entire body, and to feel the shiver of cold fear that started at the top of his head and ran down his spine and into his toes, before he was distracted by a light that flashed from the side of the beast’s head. It was the fairy, having darted out from the protection of the trees and directly into the beast’s face.

She was flitting about its eyes, and, Peter noticed, squinting up to try to make out her minuscule movements, pointing out to the sea over and over again, yelling in her little bell voice. Peter was about to snap that this was no time for yelling when he realized what she was trying to say. The beast jerked its head left and right, trying to get the fairy out of its eyes, and as he remained distracted, Peter ran out into the water. As soon as he was a fair distance away, the fairy zoomed away from the creature’s face. It barreled forward immediately, headed straight for Peter, crashing through the water like it was little more than air.

Peter was just beginning to fear that he would not be able to run through the water fast enough to escape when he felt a warmth falling over him from above. He looked up; the fairy had poured some of her pixie dust over him. Peter knew what to do. He screwed his eyes shut, and thought of the loveliest thing he could conjure (in this moment, it was the crook of a tall tree, where he could sleep far off of the ground) and just as the beast was one bound away, he felt himself lifted from the sea and into the air.

The fairy flew back to shore with him. They landed in time to watch the waves build up around the beast, matching its height at first and, within seconds, picking it up and dragging it out to sea. As soon as it was gone, the water stilled and calmed, almost completely silent once more.

Peter, having already forgotten his own fear, looked up at the fairy with a cheeky grin. ”I guess you like me all right after all,” he said.

The fairy, indignant, began her ranting again but Peter only said, “You came back.”

As it had before, all of the fight went out of the fairy at once. She seemed to give a little sigh and shrugged her shoulders. But though it was small, Peter could see that she was smiling. He smiled back, and held out his hand. The fairy stepped onto his palm and allowed him to place her on his shoulder. He began walking down the beach toward the trees, the fairy settling onto his shoulder with her legs crossed. She said something to Peter, leaning toward his ear so he would understand her.

"Tinkerbell," he said. Then, "Let’s get some sleep, Tink - there are new adventures tomorrow."

Tinkerbell nestled in against Peter’s neck and shut her eyes; she was still smiling. The leaves in the trees all around them rustled and shivered, just once, as though the island was settling in for the night, content.

**Author's Note:**

> This story was an attempt to write a story about Peter in which Neverland plays a role as a character. It was a bit of an experiment and an exercise in enjoyment for me, so I hope you enjoyed it too!


End file.
